Clare Bernhard Coaching

30/01/2025

Hi everyone...I currently have space for 2 or 3 new coaching clients. Over the past year I've had the privilege of coaching professionals at organisations including M&G, Broadridge in New York, Burberry, and Swarovski. I have helped employees navigate challenges, elevate performance, and achieve meaningful growth.

Whether you're looking for personal or professional coaching—either in person (London) or via Zoom—I’d love to support you on your journey. If this sounds like something you or someone in your network could benefit from, get in touch!

22/02/2023

WELLBEING AT WORK

Last month I attended a conference about wellbeing at work.

$50bn was spent by companies in 2020 on wellbeing programmes and this is expected to double by 2030. 96% of CEOs think they are doing enough for the mental health of employees, yet 68% of employees classify themselves as stressed or struggling.

Companies offer things to boost wellbeing at work for example yoga classes, meditation app subscriptions and talks by nutritionists. But what impact do they have? On average 39% of employees sign up, but almost half drop out before the first activity even begins. Those who remain involved are the people who already practice self care outside of work - ie. are already exercising, meditating and eating well. People who are really struggling with their mental health do not tend to participate.

Whilst company wellbeing programmes focus on the periphery at work (ie adding external things) they seem to have little to no impact on employee satisfaction. The research shows that to boost wellbeing at work employees need certainty, competence, autonomy, belonging and purpose.

What do you think? Does free yoga, fruit or external speakers make a difference to how you feel at work?

(pic a throwback from teaching yoga at the Sanctus wellbeing weekend away!)

02/02/2023

JANUARY…such a busy month for me finishing up with my clients at Burberry. We have been working on a variety of leadership challenges including communication, conflict resolution, confidence and finding work-life balance.

An inspiring and motivating six months for me working with an amazing brand 🐎

26/01/2023

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the day with Simon Alexander Ong for a workshop on managing your energy. It was fantastic. His methodology is based on getting the most out of life through managing your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual energy. It was a 5 hour workshop so lots to work through but my key takeaways were:

- 1 hour of exercise per day is less than 5% of the day and the absolute key to extending lifespan
- Sleep-deprived leaders are more impatient, irritable, and antagonistic, which resulted in worse relationships
- Easiest way to change your emotional energy is gratitude BUT for it not to become a tick box exercise we must tell people when we feel thankful for them
- Voices have energy - call or voice notes over messaging!
- Energy and presence is valued over time in relation to other people
- I'm embracing 'pronoia'
- Personal recognition is crucial to employee wellbeing at work
- The mind is so easily influenced by our past. Need to create space in the present moment to reset our mind.

Have you read his book 'Energize'? What did you think? (And have you heard of pronoia?)

13/07/2022

Resilience - after last weeks focus on strengths, I wondered whether anyone had not had 'resilience' as a weakness, post pandemic. This is a really interesting opinion piece on a new way to look at burnout and resilience in the workplace.

Bruce Daisley posits alternatives to resilience training and offers 3 strategies to stave off burnout in the workplace.

06/07/2022

Last week I did some further training on Strengths with Coaching Direct

Why does knowing and working with your strengths matter? Well, people who use their strengths are six times more likely to be engaged in their work. A massive 98% of employees say they want their employer to recognise their strengths.

But do you know what your strengths are - and are you using them? Interestingly our strengths change over time!

A good place to start is to take this (free) strengths profile:
https://www.strengthsprofile.com/en-GB/Products/Free

Want to discuss further? Let me know!

You can discover your top 3 realised strengths, 3 unrealised strengths, 2 learned behaviours and 1 weakness in our Free Starter Profile. Use it to start your strengths journey, gain self-awareness of what you love to do and support any job applications. You can choose to upgrade to a more in-depth P...

24/06/2022

NEW BLOG - Who wants to be a millionaire? Last year I trained to be a “Financial Coach” with the UKs market leader. What I found shocked and angered me. It bordered on exploitation/a total scam (imho). Financial coaching is a big growth trend in the coaching world and increasingly being sold within corporates as an employee perk. Link below.

PLEASE read if you are considering taking on a financial coach. Let me know what you think in the comments!

https://www.clarefreeman.coach/blog

14/06/2022

WHY? I spent all of 2021 going round in circles wondering what I wanted to do work wise. I wasn’t feeling energised by coaching and missed being part of a team. A lot of it was wanting to escape my house, put on clothes that weren’t leggings, go to an office (or anywhere), get lunch from Pret and spend time with adults.

I knew I wanted to work for my own sense of identity and sanity, but doing what? I want to spend a lot of time with my kids, but not all my time!

I did several interviews with asset management companies and considered going back into finance to give me a team to work in. I liked the idea of it, but did I want to start work at 7am, do 40+ hours a week and work in an all male team (again..)? No.

I birthed my second baby, had a rethink and did another amazing coaching training course. It really revitalised my love for coaching, learning, and working with people to change their lives. Now that the world has reopened that craving to be part of a team has gone.

Now I’m feeling inspired to be coaching again and grateful to be able to spend a lot of time with my sons.

08/06/2022

DAY 1: WORK….it’s been 2 years and 3 months….2 kids, one pandemic, several interviews back in fund management, one training to be a financial coach (more on that later), several coach interviews whilst breastfeeding, one big corporate contract later….I am relaunching and restarting my coaching business. Am really excited to be starting fresh for the third time in seven years, and getting back to work ✨

20/09/2021

** FREE Financial Coaching Session **

It's been a while and I have been round and round a bit in terms of getting back to work ;-), but now I’m looking for people who need some help getting their finances in shape, and would like a free financial coaching session.

My background prior to coaching was in accountancy and asset management, and I’m now completing my training as a Financial Coach with Octopus- the UK’s leading financial coaching provider. My next step is to get some practice with real people! The coaching session is completely free, and we can focus on any area you like. That could be buying a house, pensions, saving for a rainy day, improving your day to day budgeting, or anything else.

I’ll then prepare some initial thoughts (with the help of my colleagues) on what you should be focussing on, and how you could improve your financial future. Coaching sessions are on video call, or simply over the phone. Whatever suits you best.

You can sign up for the free session here

This link has timed out, please request a new link from your coach, or contact us at support@octopusmoneycoach.com with the name of your coach. Thanks!

01/03/2021

This little man is almost 1 and I am slowly returning to work. Clearly a LOT has changed in a year...

I'm working with a coach now to refine what it is I want to bring forward and what I want to let go of. I look forward to connecting with you soon!

03/02/2020

I have the best clients 🥰 Lovely Monday morning surprise from La Fosse Associates after coaching there for 2.5 years for Sanctus I’m going to miss them! Feeling valued